IAS officers’ body seeks action against Arunachal Scouts

New Delhi: Days after a large number of Arunachal Scouts personnel vandalised a police station in the state, the central IAS officers’ association has written to the Defence Ministry demanding action against the alleged perpetrators.

Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra

In a letter addressed to Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra, IAS association president Rakesh Srivastava alleged that a battalion of the Second Arunachal Pradesh Scouts — led by Col Firdosh P Dubash and Adjutant Major Kaushik Roy — “vandalised government properties and physically assaulted the district magistrate of the area, the superintendent of the police and other officials of the Bomdila police station in the West Kameng district of the state on November 2”.

He alleged that when a woman IAS officer, Sonal Swarup, who is the district magistrate-cum-deputy commissioner, ordered the Army personnel to disperse, she was “verbally abused and stone pelted”.

Srivastava, who is the secretary at the Ministry of Women and Child Development, has now called on authorities to ensure that the alleged perpetrators are brought to justice, “so that such incidents remain an aberration in the otherwise illustrious legacy of the armed forces”.

The Arunachal Scouts personnel allegedly damaged five vehicles and snatched away arms and ammunition after two of its personnel were taken there in connection with an incident of alleged misbehaviour.

A defence communique had said the two personnel of the Second Arunachal Scouts were picked up by police when they had gone to attend Buddha Mahotsav in Bomdila and were severely beaten up in custody.

The incident was an outcome of highhandedness displayed by Arunachal Police coupled with the lax attitude of the civil administration, it added.

But West Kameng Superintendent of Police Raja Bantia said the two Scouts personnel had allegedly misbehaved with visitors at the Mahotsava and were taken to the police station, where they reportedly manhandled the officer in-charge and a policewoman.